Survey result: Is 'Made in USA' important?

Editor: David Shamy

“Made in USA” is not so common in the electronics industry nowadays - certainly not as common as it used to be. But what are you willing to do to see EMS companies bring manufacturing back to the region? And, importantly, what would you expect in return? The results of Evertiq's survey might be surprising.

With the United States still languishing in a recession, and with stubbornly high unemployment, the loss of manufacturing jobs has received a large portion of the blame.

Some commentators argue purchasing ”Made in USA” is now a matter of social responsibility – one way in which the country can help turn the tables on the poor economy. All this sounds fine in theory but are consumers really willing to pay the almost inevitable higher prices associated with local production?

Support for USA made electronics products was strong - of the approximately 400 respondents, 71 percent answered that they would spend more money for an electronic product íf it was made in the USA.

Most of these respondents (40 percent) would pay up to 10 percent more, but a significant amount (22 percent) would pay between 11-20 percent more.

But why are respondents willing to pay more? The results were interesting. It's somewhat expected that people want to see better job creation in return for buying USA made products, but an equal amount (20 percent) wanted to receive products that were better quality in return for going local.

It may not only be job creation that motivates consumers to buy USA made, but also the perception that USA made products are better quality.

In fact, when considering what influences purchasing decisions, quality was ranked as a more important factor than price by our respondents. 60 percent ranked quality as the number one influence on consumer decisions, compared to just 20 percent who said price was the most important.